Matthew Branham

A Rumor of War 

                A rumor of war is written by Phillip Caputo, this book was a very interesting story line and very well written. The book simply does start rather slow I personally think. However, once the story line picked up the excitement increases tremendously. There are heroic characters and then there is the characters that not everyone enjoys. Simply this book was a wonderful choice and would have never considered reading it before seminar.

            In the book “Rumor of War,” the story is divided up into three parts, each story continually telling the story of the main character Lt. Caputos experience in the Vietnam War. The book is split up into four parts, part one begins with his adventures in boot camp, and later going into Vietnam and leading as an officer. Part two then begins to explain the story of how Caputo was reassigned from his rifle to an office job in other words sitting behind a desk. During this part he is mainly monitoring the causalities of the war. In part three he is reassigned, once more, back to a rifle company. Where eventually gets into an “incident” and eventually relieved if his duties as an officer. Finally in the last part of Caputo’s story he relives his experience as an officer as an journalist during the fall of Saigon

            In the book there are really only four to five characters that you really focus on when reading the book. Lt. Caputo is the main character of course as mentioned in the brief summary above. He is really portrayed and explained as a very intelligent young officer. He really is just trying to survive like most of his other peers. The next character would be Sgt. McClellan he is one of the very first characters introduced in the book. He is an overall very well rounded soldier who in which taught Caputo the art of war. The best way to describe his appearance is the typical very large man, very muscular, and energetic. Lance Corporal Sampson is the next character that is involved in the beginning of the writing. Sampson is pretty much described as kindly a bum. He is very sloppy not your typical war hero. However, he is a decent soldier and described as a chessboard. Officer Lemmon is another character that is introduced fairly early in the story line as well. Lemmon is very much comparable to Caputo, when it comes to rank and profession. Lastly mentioning Colonel Nickerson is the war head that has a very bad temper, typically considered a little bit strange. However, is a very nice man all in all.

            I strongly recommend this piece of literature to any individual that is simply interested in history or has strong war interest. Simply because this writing is a very close adaptation to the Vietnam War. The book is very descriptive giving very strong imagery. Example being “The rain fell into my collar and poured out the sleeves of my jackets as if they were drainpipes.” (Pg. 237) This is just a chilling piece of imagery to me simply seeing and imagining the miserable conditions that were sometime presented. The writing is simply intense and life like even though it is a piece of fiction. Overall the writing just gives an astonishing overall view of the impact war has on the soldiers.

            In conclusion, this writing was a very good choice for me because of my passion for history as well as war. The book was absolutely thrilling and simply very enjoyable to read. I have never really been a reader however the book really captured my attention and the strong imagery was simply astonishing. I am very pleased with my selection and I strongly recommend this piece of literature to anyone that enjoys reading.